Gloria Bell

This is a deep dive into the life of a divorced woman in her mid-late 50s as she finds herself on the dating scene again – losing herself on the dance floor or singing romantic songs as she drives around town, and falling into a relationship with an ex-military paintball-operator. Julianne Moore is in pretty much every scene as the titular Gloria, clearly seeking connections and willing to inconvenience herself a fair way in order to make them happen. John Tuturro as the lover is a mixture of gentleness and slowly emerging risky signals – as it becomes increasingly obvious he’s a partner who’s simultaneously very much in need of a lot of Gloria’s attention, and not willing to give much of himself up to compromise.

I do think this is slightly mismarketed as being an inspirational “Eat, Pray, Love” style tribute to older women, while in reality it’s a more bitter, complex piece. The soundtrack is used in almost a Dennis Potter kind of way – commenting on the situations Gloria is in with their glib pop music lyrics, with the simple positive messages never quite meeting her own sense of unease. And the resolution, when it comes, isn’t so much a triumph as a still point of celebrating survival. Still, this is a strong adaptation of the Argentinian original, centering on a great central performance.